The invention relates to a method and system for evaluating a product design. The task of generating, evaluating and implementing a product design is a formidable one. Typically, product designs are generated by design personnel and put through a process often referred to as design review. In design review, individuals skilled in design, production, inspection, packaging, etc. evaluate designs. This often leads to re-design and further design review cycles delaying new product introduction. Once a product design is selected, prototypes may be produced using different materials and/or manufacturing processes. Although the selection of materials and manufacturing processes is performed by those skilled in the art, this process is still an iterative trial and error process that often results in changes to the design accompanied by additional prototyping. This cycle delays new product introduction and is often focused on internal metrics rather than customer metrics.
A product design may be represented by product factors (e.g., material, processing parameters, dimensions) that affect product responses (e.g., cost, performance). The factors and responses define a design space. Much of the above-described iterative cycle conventionally performed in the art is an attempt to locate a region in the design space in which product factors and product responses are within desired limits or constraints. While locating a region in a design space where design criteria are met is helpful, there may exist an optimum point in the design space where responses are optimized thus enhancing the product. Thus, there is a need in the art for a system that improves designs by allowing a designer to optimize responses.
An exemplary embodiment of the invention is a method for optimizing a product design. The method includes specifying a plurality of application parameters for the product. A plurality of predetermined factors and responses are obtained in response to the plurality of application parameters. A transfer function is obtained which relates at least one factor to at least one response. The transfer function is optimized in response to user-defined optimization criteria to generate an optimized factor and an optimized response. The optimized factor and the optimized response are then displayed. Also disclosed are a system and storage medium for implementing the method.